Slavery's legacy in the North of Scotland
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Slavery’s legacy in the North of Scotland will be examined this week in a special programme on BBC ALBA.
The stories of Scots who profited from colonial slavery are investigated in the first of a new series of BBC ALBA’s European current affairs programme Eòrpa.
Reporter Ruairidh MacIver asks how the history and legacy of slavery should be marked in light of the recent Black Lives Matter movement, which has already generated intense debate around the world – and direct action.
Over one million acres of land – around one in every three acres – that was purchased in the West Highlands and islands from the 18th century to early 20th century was paid for with funds derived from slavery.
Historian and author Dr David Alston from Cromarty recently gave an online lecture as part of the Doors Open Day Moray event.
His painstaking research over the past two decades has exposed how the region was so dependent on the trade.
Dr Alston said: "The more I’ve studied this I think that you really don’t understand the history of Scotland or the history of the Highlands unless you understand the importance of the slave trade in that history.
"The history of the Highlands in 1700s and 1800s isn’t complete without mentioning slavery – it’s where the money was made."
Most of the profit came from where the country of Guyana stands now in South America.
Dr Alston, who features in the programme, said: "There was a flood of young men creating new cotton plantations along the coast.
"There are about 40 place names replicated along the coast there – such as Inverness, Nigg, Alness and Kildonan.
"Whatever the wrongs of the ways people have been treated in the Highlands and elsewhere in Britain it is not the same as chattel slavery and it’s a profoundly misleading parallel.
"The horrors of slavery are so terrible that people want to distance themselves from it.
"But it’s really something we have a moral obligation to resist – it’s false."
He added: "There was a strong interest in this part of Scotland in not seeing the abolition of slavery, some of that was because Scottish salt herring was being shipped to the Caribbean as a cheap protein for slaves.
"It was also the export market for the hemp bagging that was being produced here and rough linen cloth, known as slave cloth.
"So there were petitions from places like the Black Isle and Cromarty opposing the abolition of slavery because there was a direct financial interest here."
Eòrpa airs on Thursday upon BBC ALBA at 8.30pm.
